GCSE results

Countywide decision not to reveal grades

HEAD teachers across Leicestershire have chosen to keep GCSE results secret this year.

Education bosses decided not to make overall results public due to changes in the way schools are measured in league tables.

The new measure, introduced by the Government is known as Progress 8.

Previously schools were deemed successful on the percentage of pupils who achieved five or more A* to C grades including English and maths.

However, Progress 8 means that the results of every child at every grade in several subjects will count rather than just a few around the threshold.

A school’s Progress 8 score is the average of the pupils scores. It is calculated each year using the results of all the pupils taking GCSE exams nationally. Therefore, on results day no-one knows what the national average will be and cannot calculate their Progress 8 score.

Due to the new changes, the Education Improvement Partnership in Leicester (EIP) and Leicestershire Secondary Heads Association decided not to publish the results.

Denise Newsome, chair of the EIP, and Katie Rush, chair of Leicestershire Secondary Head teachers Association, said in a statement: “In light of these changes, the secondary schools have decided that, for at least this first year, they will not by releasing school data.

“Progress 8 is not only a much more complicated measure to calculate. It would be impossible to report with certainty on results day.

“This is because it requires a comparison to all the pupils nationally taking the same set of exams.

“It compares the pro- gress made by all pupils from the same starting outcomes to see if individual students in a school have made greater, the same or lesser progress and by how much.

“This is a very complex process and is why the final Progress 8 figure will not be known with a degree of accuracy until the January data is released.

“Schools do not wish to publish an inaccurate calculation on results day.”